Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler
by BeccaBlue94
Summary: Marie Gautier, twin sister to Nick, thought she was pretty normal. However, when her brother's weirdo friend starts sicking zombies on the school, her original diagnosis starts to shift. More detailed summary inside. Tad/oc/Caleb
1. Detailed Summary

Marie Gautier, twin sister to Nick, thought she was pretty normal. However, when her brother's weirdo friend starts sicking zombies on the school, her original diagnosis starts to shift. Add that to her brother working off a debt to a creepy-but fairly polite-new boss and the weirdness that is these new powers she supposedly has AND hormones running rampant for Tad Addams…yeah high school just started sucking a lot harder.


	2. Chapter 1

I am a socially awkward mandork."

"Nicholas Ambrosius Gautier! You watch your language!"

Nick sighed at his mother's sharp tone as he stood in their tiny kitchen looking down at the bright orange Hawaiian shirt. The color and style were bad enough, the fact it was covered in l-a-r-g-e pink, gray and white trout (or were they salmon?) was even worse. His sister, Marie, sat at the mismatched kitchen table stifling laughter. Her clothes weren't nearly as bad, in old jeans and a ruffle grey shirt that tied in a bow at her hip; she actually looked like she could fit in at school.

"Mom, I can't wear this to school. It's..." he paused to think real hard of a word that wouldn't get him grounded for life– "hideous. If anyone sees me in this, I'll be an outcast relegated to the loser corner of the cafeteria."

"You already are, why worry?" Marie questioned with a giggle and a friendly nudge. He sneered at her jokingly and elbowed her in the arm.

As always, their mother scoffed at his protest. "Oh shush. There's nothing wrong with that shirt. Wanda told me at the Goodwill store that it came in from one of those big mansions down in the Garden District. That shirt belonged to the son of a fine upstanding man and since that's what I'm raising you to be..."

Nick ground his teeth. "I'd rather be a delinquent no one picks on."

She let out a deep sound of aggravation as she paused while flipping bacon. "No one's going to pick on you, Nicky. The school has a strict no bullying policy." The twins shared a look. Marie may have dressed the part, but by association to him she was also considered a loser. They knew that the 'policy' wasn't worth the "contract" paper it was written on. Especially since the bullies were illiterate idiots who couldn't read it anyway.

Jeez. Why wouldn't she listen to him? It wasn't like he wasn't the one going into the lion's den every day and having to traverse the brutality of high school land mines. Honestly, he was sick of it and there was nothing he could do.

He was a massive loser dork and no one at school ever let him forget that. Not the teachers, the principal and especially not the other students.

_Why can't I flash forward and bypass this whole high school nightmare? _

Because his mom wouldn't let him. Only hoodlums dropped out of school and she didn't work as hard as she did to raise up another piece of worthless scum– it was a harped on litany permanently carved into his brain. It ranked right up there with:

_Be a good boy, Nicky. Graduate. Go to college. Get a good job. Marry a good girl. Have lots of grandbabies and never miss a holy day of obligation at church._ His mom had already road mapped his entire future with no diversions or pit stops allowed. Marie didn't get that because she was less likely to screw up, but she was still expected to graduate, go to college, marry and have lots of kids- after everything else had passed.-no teen pregnancy for her.

But at the end of the day, he loved his mom and appreciated everything she did for him, he knew Mar did too. Except for this whole, do what I say, Nicky. I'm not listening to you because I know better thing, she said all the time.

He wasn't stupid and he wasn't a troublemaker. She had no idea what he went through at school and every time he tried to explain it, she refused to listen. It was so frustrating.

_Gah, can't I catch swine flu or something?_ Just for the next four years until he was able to graduate and move on to a life that didn't include constant humiliation? After all, the swine flu had killed millions of people in 1918 and several more during outbreaks in the seventies and eighties. Was it too much to ask that another mutant strain of it to incapacitate him for a few years?

Maybe a good bout of Parvo...

_You're not a dog, Nick. _

True, no dog would be caught dead wearing this shirt. Whizzing on it would be another matter...

Sighing in useless angst, he looked down at the crap shirt he wanted desperately to burn. Okay fine. He'd do what he always did whenever his mom made him look like a flaming moron.

He'd own it.

_I don't want to own _this._ I look like epically stupid. _

_Man-up, Nick. You can take it. You've taken a lot worse. _

Yeah, all right. Fine. Let them laugh. He couldn't stop that anyway. If it wasn't the shirt, they'd humiliate him over something else. His shoes. His haircut. And if all else failed, they'd insult his name. Didn't matter what he said or did, those who mocked would mock anything. Because some people were just wired wrong and they couldn't live unless they were making other people suffer.

His Aunt Menyara always said no one could make him feel inferior unless he allowed them to.

Problem was he allowed it a lot more than he wanted to.

His mom set a chipped blue plate on the side of the rusted out stove. "Sit down, baby, and eat something. I was reading in a magazine that someone left at the club that kids score much higher on tests and do a lot better in school whenever they have breakfast." She smiled and held the package of bacon up for him to see. "And look. It's not expired this time."

He laughed at something that really wasn't funny. One of the guys who came into his mom's club was a local grocer who would give them meat sometimes when it expired since all the guy did was throw it out anyway.

"_As long as we eat it quick, it won't make us sick._"

Another litany he hated.

Picking up the crispy bacon, he glanced around the tiny condo they called home. It was one of four that had been carved out of an old rundown house. Made up of three small rooms- the kitchen/living room, his mom and sister's bedroom and the bathroom- it wasn't much, but it was theirs and his mom was proud of it so he tried to be proud too.

Most days.

He winced as he looked at his corner where his mom had strung up dark blue blankets to make a room for him on his last birthday. His clothes were kept in an old laundry basket on the floor set next to his mattress that was covered with _Star Wars_ sheets he'd had since he was nine– another present his mom had picked up at a yard sale.

"One day, Mom, I'm going to buy us a really nice house." With really nice stuff in it.

She smiled, but her eyes said she didn't believe a word he spoke. "I know you will, baby. Now eat up and get to school. I don't want you dropping out like me." She paused as a hurt look flitted across her face. "You can see exactly what that gets you."

Guilt cut through him. He and Mar were the reason his mom had dropped out of school. As soon as her parents had learned she was pregnant, they'd offered her one choice.

Give up the baby or give up her nice home in Kenner, her education and her family.

For reasons he still didn't understand, she'd chosen them.

It was something Nick never let himself forget. But one day he was going to get all that back for her. She deserved it and for her, he'd wear this godawful shirt.

Even if it got him killed...

And he'd smile through the pain of it until Stone and his crew kicked his teeth in.

Trying not to think about the butt-whipping to come, Nick ate his bacon in silence, watching as his sister tried to get a brush through knotted brown blonde hair. Maybe Stone wouldn't be in school today. He could get malaria or the plague, or rabies or something.

"Marie stop that right now, you're gonna rip out all your hair if you keep that up. Here give me that," their mom pried the brush from her fingers and proceeded to split her hair into multiple sections. She eased the brush through them individually using slow, easy strokes that showed patience his sister didn't have. He chuckled as she winced and jerked when Cherise hit a particularly nasty tangle.

Yeah, may the smarmy freak get a pox on his privates.

That thought actually made him smile as he shoved the grainy powdered eggs in his mouth and swallowed them. He forced himself not to shiver at the taste. But it was all they could afford.

He glanced at the clock on the wall and jerked, flicking Marie's arm he jumped up. "Gotta go. We're going to be late."

She dropped the brush with a sigh, Marie's hair shown bright but as she flipped her head down and rounded up her locks in a sloppy ponytail, Cherise shook her head and grabbed him for a bear hug.

Nick grimaced. "Stop sexually harassing me, Mom. I gotta go before I get another tardy."

She popped him on the butt cheek before she released him. "Sexually harassing you. Boy, you have no idea." She ruffled his hair as he bent over to pick up his backpack. He grabbed Mar's while she fought off another hug and then and they both hit the door running. They launched themselves from the dilapidated porch and sprinted down the street, passed broken down cars and garbage cans to where the streetcar stopped.

"Please don't be gone..." Nick muttered. Marie glared at him.

"So help me Nick, if it's gone Ma is not going to be your biggest fear."

They both knew what would happen if they were late again. "Nick? What are we going to do with you, you white trash dirt?" lecture from Mr. Peters, he didn't even want to think about what the man would say to Marie, he was always talking to her alone in his office. It worried Nick sometimes, but then he'd remember watching her punch Stone's lackeys and he'd laugh the worry away. The old man hated their guts and the fact that they were both scholarship kids at his snotty over privileged school seriously ticked Peters off. He'd like nothing better than to kick them out so that Nick and Marie wouldn't "corrupt" the kids from the good families.

Nick's lip curled as he tried not to think about the way those decent people looked at him like he was nothing. More than half their dads were regulars at the club where his mom worked, yet they were called decent while he and his mom and his sister were considered trash.

The hypocrisy of that didn't sit well with him. But it was what it was. He couldn't change anyone's mind but his own.

Nick put his head down and ran full speed as he saw the streetcar stopped at his station.

_Oh man_...

He picked up speed and he broke out into a dead run. He hit the platform and leapt for the streetcar. He'd caught it just in time. Mar gripped the pole on his right and swung herself up on the step behind him just a split second after him. She grinned dusting herself off and shoved him forward.

Panting and sweating from the humid autumn New Orleans air, he shrugged his backpack off as he greeted the driver. "Morning Mr. Clemmons." He didn't even bother glancing at Mar, he knew _she_ was fine. Running didn't bother her; she loved to run and was on the track team. She was only slightly sweating and when she let her hair down and held it out the window. He knew it would be perfect when they got to the school.

The elderly African American man smiled at him. He was one of Nick's favorite drivers. "Morning, Mr. Gautier." He always mispronounced Nick's last name. He said it Go-chay instead of the correct Go-shay. The difference being Go-chay traditionally had an "h" in it after the "t" and as Nick's mom so often said, they were too poor for anymore letters. Not to mention, one of his mom's relatives, Fernando Upton Gautier, had founded the small town in Mississippi that shared his name and both were pronounced Go-shay. "Your mom made ya'll late again?"

"You know it." Nick dug his money out of his pocket and quickly paid before taking a seat. Winded and sweating, he leaned back and let out a deep breath, grateful he'd made it in time.

Unfortunately, he was still sweating when he reached school. The beauty of living in a city where even in October, it could hit ninety by eight a.m. Man, he was getting tired of this late heatwave they'd been suffering.

_Suck it up, Nick. You're not late today. It's all good. _

_Yeah, let the mocking commence_.

He smoothed his hair down, wiped the sweat of his brow and draped his backpack over his left shoulder.

"Go to the bathroom inside, wet a paper towel or something. You'll die of heat stroke if ya don't." He grinned reassuringly at Mar. She worried a lot even though he wasn't sick like she was.

"You sure you're okay?" She waved his concern away, pressing two fingers to her back pocket, silently telling him she had her meds if she needed them.

Marie had been born with a rare disease that resembled TB but wasn't actually. Her lungs weren't failing but there were times when her heart would slow too much too fast and her lungs wouldn't be able to get her enough breath. She would collapse for fifteen to twenty minutes, an hour at most. As long as she had her medication, someone could give it to her or she could take it at the beginning of an attack and it would reset her body. The only problem was that the meds she took weren't registered at hospitals; it was all their Aunt Menyara's own creation. Marie had only actually been to a hospital once when she had her first attack. They couldn't afford to go back again. _She could have been getting worse by the day, and they would never know_.

Shaking the thought away, he nudged her with his shoulder and held his head high in spite of the snickers and comments about his shirt and sweaty condition. They walked across the yard and through the doors like they owned them. It was the best he could do.

"Ew! Gross! He's dripping wet. Is he too poor to own a towel? Don't poor people ever bathe?"

"Looks like he went fishing, in the Pontchartrain and came up with that hideous shirt, instead of a real fish."

"That's cause he couldn't miss it. I'll bet it even glows in the dark."

"I bet there's a naked hobo somewhere wanting to know who stole his clothes while he was sleeping on a bench. Gah, how long has he owned those shoes anyway? I think my dad wore a pair like that in the eighties."

Nick turned a deaf ear to them and focused on the fact that they really were stupid. None of them would be here if their parents weren't loaded. He was the scholarship kid. They probably couldn't have even spelled their names right on the exam he'd aced to get in.

That was what mattered most. He'd much rather have brains than money.

Though right now, a rocket launcher might be nice too. He just couldn't say that out loud without the faculty calling the cops on his having "inappropriate" thoughts.


	3. Chapter 2

His bravado lasted until he reached his and Marie's lockers where Stone and crew were loitering.

Great, just great. Couldn't they pick someone else to stalk?

Stone Blakemoor was the kind of creep who gave jocks a bad name. They weren't all like that and he knew it. Nick had several friends who were on the football team– starters no less, not seat warmers like Stone.

Still, when you thought of an arrogant jock-rock, Stone was aptly named. It was definitely a self-fulfilling moniker his parents had labeled him with. Guess his mom had known in the womb that she was going to birth a flaming moron.

Stone snorted as Nick stopped beside his group to open his locker. "Hey Gautier? I saw your mom naked last night– shaking her butt in my dad's face so that he'd put a dollar in her G-string. He got a good feel of her too. Said she's got a nice set of-"

Before he could think better of it, Nick swiped him upside the head with his backpack as hard as he could. Marie let out a short shrike of his name, reaching out to stop him. Stone's crew held her back though.

And then it was on like Donkey Kong.

"Fight!" Someone shouted while Nick wrapped Stone in a headlock and pounded him.

A crowd gathered round, chanting, "fight, fight, fight."

"Nicholas stop this right now!" his sister chastised, but he ignored her as, somehow, Stone escaped his hold and hit him so hard in the sternum, it took the breath from him. Dang, he was a lot stronger than he looked. He hit like a jackhammer.

Furious, Nick started for him only to find one of the teachers suddenly between them.

Ms. Pantall.

The sight of her petite form calmed him instantly. He wasn't about to hit an innocent person, especially not a woman. She narrowed her eyes at him and pointed down the hall. "To the office, Gautier. Now!"

Cursing under his breath, Nick picked his backpack up from the tiled beige floor and glared at Stone who at least had a busted lip, he looked at his sister next and saw her glaring at him. It was a look he swore she'd inherited from their mom, a fierce, nasty look that said he was in for it later.

So much for not getting into trouble.

But what was he supposed to do? Let the weasel scum insult his mom? He glanced once more over his shoulder and saw a smirk tugging at his sisters lip as she landed one final punch on Stone's jaw while the teachers back was turned. Ms. Pantall turned back just in time to see Stone try to grab Mar and that was all Nick saw before he entered the office, disgusted that he couldn't defend his sister. He sat in the corner chair outside the principal's door. Why wasn't there an undo button for life?


	4. Chapter 3

**A.N. **Thanks so much RandomReader15 and S.L.S Light for reviewing. I'm glad you both like it. And for other readers, I hope you also drop a few words to let me know what ya'll think.

Marie turned to her locker, after evading Ms. Pantall's arrest by blaming Stone and feigning innocence, with a proud smirk. She was mad at Nick, but she couldn't blame him. The jerk had it coming, but now he was probably gonna get expelled or something and she was going to have to watch her back. Stone was an awful person and had no qualms about hitting a girl. He'd get her back for that final blow eventually.

"That was a really good hit." Someone said from behind her locker door. She knew that voice, male with a slight baritone that indicated he was older. Leaning back slowly, Marie met warm, mirth filled brown eyes. Eyes she met every day in AP Chemistry. Her lab partner for the semester, Tad Addams, was leaning against Nick's locker with a smirk on his handsome face. Her knees went weak, making her legs feel like half-melted wax.

"Thanks." She smiled to herself, ducking back into her locker. She didn't notice, as she gathered up her books for her first three classes, Tad smile. And she definitely missed his moving from against the locker to standing right behind her, until she straightened and met his eyes in the mirror on the door. With a gasp, her hand came over her heart-which was beating abnormally fast-and she stepped closer to her locker.

"Jeeze Addams, you could seriously give a girl a heart attack." Rubbing his knuckles against his shirt, he looked at her from under his lashes, his smile widened into a proud grin.

"So I've been told, though generally there _is_ an act before the words come out." Marie laughed, wrinkling her nose. Her hand came up, with every intention to just push him out of the way, and landed on his chest.

"You're disgusting."

"You can't keep your hands off of me." She jerked her hand away, turning away from him and slamming her locker shut, she scooted around him and headed in the direction of the Science Wing. "You know I never said your touching me was a bad thing!" he called over the noise of students going to class. People paused, glancing between the two of them, whispers rose. She didn't look back, the blush that warmed her cheeks going unnoticed as she prided her composer.

Chemistry came and went with minimal talking. Today had been a note taking day, so she and Tad had played the silent flirting game…at least she was pretty sure they were flirting. She didn't do it often and wasn't ever sure she did it right. Tad kept coming though, so she guessed it was okay. When she got to English, Marie noticed that her brother wasn't there. And when the bell rang, he still hadn't arrived.

Marie sat in her usual seat, in the corner farthest from the door, next to the window, and stared at the board blankly. They were in the middle of reading Antigone-a story about a cursed, incestual, family that was slowly being killed off in terrible ways-Marie had already finished the play and most of the worksheets they'd been given, so she was in for another half-hour of boredom. She pulled out her sketch pad from her bag and a pencil from her hair and began to draw what was on her mind. Ms. Pantall rattled on, something about a dance and then this week's plan of action.

Marie didn't bother to listen; instead she focused on the motion of her hand and the sound of lead against paper. She didn't bother looking down, if she wasn't looking up at Ms. Pantall, the woman would come over and take away her pad. That would suck even worse. Margie and Casey sat in front of her, their cheer uniforms and ponytails with ribbons mocking Marie.

What would it be like, to have friends like that? Other than Nick, Tad and occasionally Brynna, Marie hardly talked to anyone…Tad, he was her only other friend. She chose not to talk to others, but Tad had worked his way around the barriers she put up and forced himself into her life. He was so nice and sweet and funny. And hot! Good lord he was fine! With his brown hair in that messy, just rolled out of bed, spiked style. His mirth filled brown eyes and his smile. She loved his smile most. Of course his body helped, he had that lean, muscular kind of body, with big biceps that she wanted-just once-to feel wrapped around her.

"Miss Gautier, why don't you read the part of Antigone for us today?" Ms. Pantall snapped. Marie shot straight, staring into twenty pairs of eyes.

"Um…sure?" she mumbled, unsure as to what to say. She pulled out her literature book and flipped to the page number she could see over Margie's shoulder. She looked down, intent on finding her next line as Stone began reading King Creon's line. Her eyes zoned in on the picture she'd been drawing. "Oh. My. God, no!" she hissed. The soft grey lines on the paper, the ones she'd drawn unconsciously, connected and became Tad's face, nose to nose with…her own. It was terrible! How could she have done that, what if someone saw it?

Marie glanced to Brynna, two rows to Marie's right. What if Brynna saw and told Tad? He'd never speak to her again! Drawing a guy kissing you was about as creepy as writing your name and your crushes in little hearts all over your notebook…


	5. Chapter 4

A.N. I'm so so so sorry that its been so long since I updated. I had several chapters written in a notebook and I just didn't have the time or drive to type it up. I went to go look for the first part of this chapter, which was on loose leaf paper, and realized that I couldn't find it. I think I threw it away on accident. So I just retyped it, which is why it's so short. I'm going to post several chapters today and we're about to see a little bit of Caleb!

Speaking of Caleb, since Infamous came out, I became aware of something, Tad graduates early! Which totally screws up all the future planning I had on this story. So I've been toying with a couple of changes. I'd like a little bit of help deciding though. What would you guys rather read: Caleb/Marie or Alex Peltier/Marie or maybe someone has another character in mind? (Right now I'm leaning more toward Caleb) Tad will stay around for the rest of this story, but when I write the Invincible continuation, Tad has to go bye bye, unfortunately. Anyway, tell me what you think and I'll keep posting and finishing this.

Stone was reading the part of Creon, the line before hers. It was a long monologue, which gave her a little time to think about how to get rid of the evidence. Carefully, Mar pulled the paper from her notebook using the perforated edge to keep damage minimal. It was an embarrassing drawing, but it was hers and she couldn't bring herself to destroy it. She kept her eyes on the people around her, mostly Ms. Pantall. Her gaze flitted around the room as she folded the picture in half; across the room she met an intense pair of black brown eyes. Marie jumped a bit, why was someone watching her? They couldn't have possible seen the drawing from all the way over there. Her hands continued to work, folding the picture again and again until it was a neat little triangle in her palm. Vaguely she registered that Stone was nearing the end of his part, but she couldn't draw her eyes away from those staring her down. In the back of her mind she recognized the boy she was having a staring contest with. Caleb Malphas, a player on the football team and school wide heartthrob, she remembered him from when Nick used to play. He'd never seemed to like her much, or her brother for that matter, before Nick got kicked off the team. So why was he so focused on her right now? Stone came on his last sentence and finally Marie was able to look away. With the last word of Stone's monologue out of the jerks mouth, Marie started hers, looking now directly at Ms. Pantall.

"All the pain I endured: how strange to discover that I long for those days of agony to return. Any anguish was bearable while I held my father in my arms. I would welcome such agony again. But now the darker cloak of death ever enfolds him with its mantle of earth. My love survives, even there in that darkness, among the dead. It lives!" The words seemed to have more meaning now as she recited them with an indescribable passion. The previously bored class turned their now focused eyes on her. Ms. Pantall looked livid that she hadn't been able to scold the street rat that most teachers though Marie was. When she finished, the bell rang to dismiss class. Marie gathered her things in her arms, slipping the triangle paper into the front cover of her least opened school book, chemistry, and nearly ran out of the class room.


	6. Chapter 5

"Hey, Gautier!" Marie paused, turning to see who'd called her. Or maybe someone was calling Nick and she could go yell at him for skipping class! It was hard sometimes, having a brother, you never knew if it was you people were calling or the other. Apparently this time it was her, because Caleb was coming toward her, navigating through the hallway crowd with expert ease. "Good, you stopped." He greeted, stopping before her.

"You didn't think I would?" Caleb shrugged, smiling the smile that got him written on the girls' bathroom wall as number 1 most eligible of the football players. Marie wouldn't fall for it, keeping her gaze firmly over his shoulder so that it seemed like she was looking at him, but didn't get her caught in his dark eyes again. "What can I do for you Malphas?" He smirked down at her.

"Mrs. Pantall was really pissed that she didn't get to humiliate anyone today." Marie nodded slowly, still trying to figure out what he wanted. "When did you memorize it?" Feeling a bit cocky, Mar smiled and winked, starting down the hall toward her locker again. Caleb followed close at her side, having little trouble navigating through the sea of people.

"I didn't. I just really liked that line and it stuck. Pure luck that that was what I had to read." She giggled and Caleb laughed with her, they arrived at her locker and they fell silent. Mar couldn't think of anything to say as she opened her locker. She could feel his eyes on her still, like in class, it made her skin itch like he was burning holes in her. Marie ignored it for as long as she could, but after filling her bag with what she needed for homework, she turned and met the brown depths. "I-" Caleb's hand came forward, came up, brushing a stray strand of her hair back. Mar was caught, her mind started to fog and for a moment she thought she was having an attack, but she didn't feel the lightheadedness of the pain in her chest, just the slight shortness of breath. She thought, for a moment, that she saw his eyes flicker from the dark brown she'd battled in English, to a sharp yellow almost like fire, but…

"Hey Marie!" and like that the spell was broken, Caleb was away from her before she could blink and Brynna in all her perky yellow dress glory came prancing up to them. Marie's breathing evened out again, she looked up to Caleb, but he was already gone. Jeeze, no wonder he was a star athlete. "Marie?" Brynna was still there, closer now and looking concerned.

"Hi Brynna," Marie forced a small smile as she faced her friend. "What's up?"

"Nick asked me to tell you that he got suspended for his fight with Stone. He asked me to get his homework in the classes we share and I will, can I give them to you after school to take to him?" Mar was still stuck on the first part of what the perky girl had said. Suspended? Dang, mom is gonna be so mad when I get home. "Marie, is that not okay?"

"Huh? No, that's fine…I'm sorry, I've got to…" Marie waved vaguely and fast-walked away, without finishing her sentence. Brynna said something behind her, but Marie didn't comprehend anything other than how angry her mother probably was.

She'd barely made it out the school entrance, thoughts swirling in her head. What's the fastest way home? Walk or run? Street car? She couldn't believe her brother had gotten suspended! Seriously? Was it too much to ask to have one normal day at school? Marie had forgotten to pay attention to where she was going as she leapt down the front stairs and collided head on with the last person she needed to see.


	7. Chapter 6

A.N. Let me start by thanking anyone who's stayed with this story and apologizing for taking so incredibly long to update. I just seemed to lose my inspiration for this story. But I'm trying to come back, I love this story and want it to go far. I want to clarify something that was mentioned in a review left, Marie is NOT a Malachi, that would be a terrible and cliché idea. She is special though, and it will all come out in due time, just like Nicky's talents did. I'd also like to apologize for all the mistakes in the last chapter, I pride myself in my work and this piece so far hasn't lived up to my expectations, I will be more thorough from now on.

"Yo, ho!" Stone greeted, sneering down at her. His hand brushed invisible dirt from his shirt. Mar scowled, this jerk had gotten her brother suspended and now he had to come after her? Totally not cool.

"What's wrong, Jock Rock, still upset over this morning?" she taunted, feeling the need to put the animal in his place, if she was gonna get chewed out because he couldn't leave her brother alone, she was going to go out fighting enough for the pair of them.

And he still deserved a little more pain for that comment about her mom.

"If it's any conciliation, I think the purple of that bruise really brings out your eyes." The smile on her face could only be described as condescending as she flashed her white teeth and apparently he understood that, because a moment later two of his goons had her arms in their beefy paws, holding her as she kicked and writhed, laughing as they dragged her back inside the school. "What's wrong Stony," Marie baited, after the goons had stopped transporting her, "afraid of little ol' me?" Her accent was thicker now, some of her moxie gone and replaced by the beginnings of fear. Stone was in her face before she could blink, growling unnaturally. She wrinkled her nose as his overly minty smelling breath overwhelmed her. She tried to control her mouth. Really, she did. But somewhere in the depths of her mind, while attempting to reign in her words, she knocked into the talking autopilot lever of her brain and coughed, "Tic-tac, Stony?"

His fist came before she could register it. Striking into her stomach and wrenching a shriek of pain from Marie. Bile rose in her throat, where were the teachers? The principal? Surely someone would come and stop this. But as Stone's second and third punches landed, the crowd and Stone's buddies laughing and cheering and chanting, Mar knew she was alone. Loneliness was a strange feeling. It made her feel empty, like she wasn't even in her body anymore. Like she was watching from the crowd as Stone hit her again and again. She couldn't even feel the pain anymore, a haze started forming over her brain…

_Oh_. That wasn't loneliness; that was…She was having an attack. The overwhelming pain and exertion and fear had triggered her sickness. She needed her meds, but with Stone's flunkies holding her and Stone beating on her, she couldn't get them. Another punch to her gut and her knees buckled, darkness started ebbing into her vision. She let out a cry of distress, hoping someone in the crowd would realize that she was in actual danger.

No one did.

It's funny how people will ignore horrific acts happening in front of them, if only because they fear the same happening to them. Like, if they pretend it's not there, it'll go away or if they side with the person on top, they can avoid being the next victim. Marie vaguely remembered a story in the newspaper a few years ago-the anniversary of something that had happened way before Marie was born-that her mother had been interested in.

A girl, Kitty something or other, had been beaten to death in an alley in some big city. There were lots of witnesses and everything, but no one stepped forward because they were all afraid of the mobsters or whoever had killed the girl, coming after them. Marie wondered if _this_ was what Kitty had felt before she died. The linoleum floor of the hall was cold on Mar's knees and her arms were tingling as blood began to flow more steadily without The Goons holding them.

"Alright," Mar gritted out, hating every fiber of herself for even uttering the words, but knowing no other way to stop the torture. "I give." Her words were slurred, her voice weak. Everything was spinning and blurring around her. Stone's laugh was distorted and he said something, but the fog in her brain didn't allow his words to process. She tried to reach for the vile of medicine in her back pocket, but as soon as she moved her arm, her body swayed and she felt like she would be sick. Both hands were planted on the ground in front of her, keeping her stable as the world spun faster. Stone's foot flung out, Mar's eyes fluttered shut in an attempt to block the pain…but it never came. One blurred eye cracked open, looking up at the back of her knight in preppy clothes.

Tad had grabbed Stone's foot, throwing him off balance and forcing the jock to fall flat on his butt with a hard thud.

"Leave, Stone, now!" Mar couldn't hear much, her ears felt like they were filled with cotton, making everything muffled. The blurry Stone ran off with-what Mar could only assume was a wannabe witty retort-she tried to blink some clarity back into her eyes as Tad knelt down in front of her, but coughs racked her body and her eyes shut instead. She could feel her heart beat slow dramatically, the tightness in her chest becoming painful. At this rate she would pass out and now one would be able to help her. And then…she didn't like thinking about that.

Her eyes opened again, when the coughing abated, and she realized Tad's lips were moving. He'd shifted her so that her body was half way propped on his, but so he could still see her face, and it looked like he was saying her name. Marie frowned, shaking her head-or at least she thought she shook her head. She could have imagined it. His mouth formed more words; she caught Brynna's name and hospital. She forced her body to move this time, fighting the lethargic feeling with everything she had.

"No," she wheezed followed by another coughing fit. Her hazy brain registered that this fit wasn't going to recede quick enough, so she tried another way. Her hand, shaking violently, grasped Tad's with the strength of a wet dish rag, and slid it awkwardly to her back pocket. She could feel, rather than hear, the laugh as he made an attempted joke. Something about not resisting his touch, even though she was dying. Through the coughing she let out a choked laugh. She could taste tears on the corner of her mouth now, from coughing so hard. "Meds," she managed, pressing his fingers against the slight bulge in her pocket. She tried not to feel his hand slipping into jeans and pulling out the vial.

"This?" she nodded, he put it in her hand, holding her fingers closed with his, and supported her weight as she clicked it open and inhaled the mixture. After a few deep breathes, Mar pulled her hand down, Tad took the hint, letting go of her hand enough to take the vile, close it and hand it off to someone. He situated himself against the lockers, letting her full weight slump on him.

"You don't have to stay," Mar murmured, but she didn't try to move. Tad chuckled, rubbing her arms where Stone's guys had held her. He was really warm. The medicine was kicking in, the fog clearing from her brain.

"What was that stuff?" Tad asked.

"Voodoo," came her answer, simple, as if she were telling him it was sunny outside. Tad didn't argue. "Did you know my brother got suspended?" Tad nodded. Marie's head lolled on his shoulder, a groan coming out.

"Feeling better?"

"Do I have to get up if I do?" It felt so good to just lay back. She always felt tired after an attack and Tad was so very warm.

"I knew you'd eventually succumb to my charms." She heard that cocky smile in his voice; that alone was enough to make her stand, no matter how much her body protested.

The hallway was pretty much deserted, her bag on the floor in front of her locker and Tad's, a few scraps of paper and some trash, being the only things left behind from the mob that was school.

"Where are my-"

"Front pocket. Bry put it there before she shooed the crowd. You were really out of it, huh?" Mar nodded, going over to her backpack to pick it up. Tad stood behind her, grabbing the strap from her and slinging it over his shoulder. "How are you getting home?" Marie gave him an annoyed scowl, reaching for the bag that Tad kept just out of reach.

"Walking, like I usually do." Tad gave a bark of laughter, heading for the entrance of the school. "Where are you going?" She called, he ignored her. When he didn't stop, Marie chased him down, following at his side. "What are you doing?" she growled, reaching for her bag again. Tad shifted it to his other shoulder, smiling at her.

"I'm carrying your bag and I intend to drive you home…or to my house if you'd prefer."

"You don't have to do that," Marie dismissed indignantly. Tad must have noticed that he'd offended her and backtracked tactfully.

"It would make me feel better." They approached his black escalade and Tad gave her a lopsided grin, holding the door open for her. "Besides, I saw that D in Chem. I, however, got an A and am offering my genius and precious time to tutor you." Marie looked at him, then the leather interior of the car.

"Fine, oh great science nerd, help me into this tank you call a car." Tad held out his arm, helping her climb into the passenger seat.


End file.
